Hospital at home for oncologic patients: SEOM-SEHAD consensus on clinical practice

Abstract

The number of oncologic patients and survival rates are increasing worldwide. This fact implies greater comorbidity and complications associated with cancer and oncologic therapies. Many of these complications require hospitalization which constitutes an additional risk factor for the patient, due to the nosocomial burden such as infections, severe functional deficits or depression. Moreover, the increasing number of hospitalizations implies a significant increase in global sanitary costs. Hospital at Home (HaH) is a resource that allows decompensated patient to remain in home, attended and treated by a hospital multidisciplinary team. Furthermore, HaH has been shown to be clearly cost-effective in multiple pathologies compared to conventional hospitalization. A group of experts from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) and the Spanish Society of Hospital at Home (SEHAD) met to discuss a brief update on home complex attention of oncologic patients and agree on aspects relating to the clinical diagnosis, admission criteria and management of different profiles.